Invoking automated assistant function(s) based on detected gesture and gaze

ABSTRACT

Invoking one or more previously dormant functions of an automated assistant in response to detecting, based on processing of vision data from one or more vision components: (1) a particular gesture (e.g., of one or more “invocation gestures”) of a user; and/or (2) detecting that a gaze of the user is directed at an assistant device that provides an automated assistant interface (graphical and/or audible) of the automated assistant. For example, the previously dormant function(s) can be invoked in response to detecting the particular gesture, detecting that the gaze of the user is directed at an assistant device for at least a threshold amount of time, and optionally that the particular gesture and the directed gaze of the user co-occur or occur within a threshold temporal proximity of one another.

BACKGROUND

Humans may engage in human-to-computer dialogs with interactive softwareapplications referred to herein as “automated assistants” (also referredto as “digital agents,” “interactive personal assistants,” “intelligentpersonal assistants,” “assistant applications,” “conversational agents,”etc.). For example, humans (which when they interact with automatedassistants may be referred to as “users”) may provide commands and/orrequests to an automated assistant using spoken natural language input(i.e., utterances), which may in some cases be converted into text andthen processed, and/or by providing textual (e.g., typed) naturallanguage input. An automated assistant responds to a request byproviding responsive user interface output, which can include audibleand/or visual user interface output.

As mentioned above, many automated assistants are configured to beinteracted with via spoken utterances. To preserve user privacy and/orto conserve resources, a user must often explicitly invoke an automatedassistant before the automated assistant will fully process a spokenutterance. The explicit invocation of an automated assistant typicallyoccurs in response to certain user interface input being received at aclient device. The client device includes an assistant interface thatprovides, to a user of the client device, an interface for interfacingwith the automated assistant (e.g., receives input from the user, andprovides audible and/or graphical responses), and that interfaces withone or more additional components that implement the automated assistant(e.g., remote server device(s) that process user inputs and generateappropriate responses).

Some user interface inputs that can invoke an automated assistant via aclient device include a hardware and/or virtual button at the clientdevice for invoking the automated assistant (e.g., a tap of a hardwarebutton, a selection of a graphical interface element displayed by theclient device). Many automated assistants can additionally oralternatively be invoked in response to one or more spoken invocationphrases, which are also known as “hot words/phrases” or “triggerwords/phrases”. For example, a spoken invocation phrase such as “HeyAssistant,” “OK Assistant”, and/or “Assistant” can be spoken to invokean automated assistant.

SUMMARY

As mentioned above, many client devices that facilitate interaction withautomated assistants—also referred to herein as “assistantdevices”—enable users to engage in touch-free interaction with automatedassistants. For example, assistant devices often include microphonesthat allow users to provide vocal utterances to invoke and/or otherwiseinteract with an automated assistant. Assistant devices described hereincan additionally or alternatively incorporate, and/or be incommunication with, one or more vision components (e.g., camera(s)),Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) component(s), radar component(s),etc.) to facilitate touch-free interactions with an automated assistant.

Implementations disclosed herein relate to invoking one or morepreviously dormant functions of an automated assistant in response todetecting, based on processing of vision data from one or more visioncomponents: (1) a particular gesture (e.g., of one or more “invocationgestures”) of a user; and/or (2) detecting that a gaze of the user isdirected at an assistant device that provides an automated assistantinterface (graphical and/or audible) of the automated assistant. Forexample, the previously dormant function(s) can be invoked in responseto detecting the particular gesture, detecting that the gaze of the useris directed at an assistant device for at least a threshold amount oftime, and optionally that the particular gesture and the directed gazeof the user co-occur or occur within a threshold temporal proximity ofone another (e.g., within 0.5 seconds, within 1.0 seconds, or otherthreshold temporal proximity). For instance, the previously dormantfunction(s) can be invoked in response to detecting a particular gesture(e.g., a “thumbs up” gesture and/or “hand wave” gesture) and in responseto detecting a directed gaze that is of at least a 0.5 second durationand that co-occurred with the particular gesture, or occurred within 1.0second of the particular gesture.

In some versions of those implementations, the one or more previouslydormant functions can be invoked in response to detecting the gestureand the directed gaze alone. For example, in response to detecting thegesture and the directed gaze alone, certain sensor data generated byone or more sensor components can be transmitted by the client device toone or more remote automated assistant components (whereas no sensordata from the sensor component(s) was being transmitted prior todetecting the gesture and the directed gaze). The certain sensor datacan include, for example, vision and/or audio data captured afterdetecting the gesture and the directed gaze and/or buffered visionand/or audio data captured during performance of the gesture and/orduring the directed gaze. In this manner, the transmission of data toremote computing components over a data network is carried outselectively and at appropriate times. This provides for efficient use ofnetwork capacity, as well as the computing and other hardware resourcesinvolved in sending and receiving the data over the network. Theefficiency improvements in usage of data networks and computingresources on remote systems can lead to significant savings in terms ofpower usage by transmitters and receivers in the network, as well as interms of memory operations and processor usage at the remote system.Corresponding effects may also be experienced at the client device.These effects, particularly over time and the ongoing operation of theautomated assistant, allow significant additional capacity to beexperienced in the network and in the computing apparatus as a whole,including the devices and systems which run the assistant. Thisadditional capacity can be used for further communication in the datanetwork, whether assistant-related or not, without the need to expandnetwork capability e.g. through additional or updated infrastructure,and additional computing operations in the computing apparatus. Othertechnical improvements will be evident from the following discussion.

In some other versions of those implementations, the one or morepreviously dormant functions can be invoked in response to detecting thegesture and the directed gaze, and detecting the occurrence of one ormore other condition(s). The occurrence of the one or more otherconditions can include, for example: detecting, based on audio data,voice activity (e.g., any voice activity, voice activity of the userproviding the gesture and directed gaze, voice activity of an authorizeduser, voice activity that includes a spoken invocation phrase) intemporal proximity to the detected gesture and directed gaze; detecting,based on vision data, mouth movement of the user that co-occurs with, oris in temporal proximity to, the detected gesture and directed gaze;detecting, based on audio data and/or vision data, that the user is anauthorized user; and/or detecting other condition(s). For example,buffered audio data can be transmitted by the client device to one ormore remote automated assistant components in response to detecting thegesture and the directed gaze, and in response to detecting voiceactivity in at least part of the buffered audio data (e.g., using avoice activity detector (VAD) module). This has corresponding advantagesto those explained above.

In some implementations disclosed herein, the previously dormantfunction(s) of an automated assistant that are invoked in response todetecting a gesture and directed gaze can include certain processing ofcertain sensor data (e.g., audio data, video, image(s), etc.) and/orrendering (e.g., graphically and/or audibly) of certain content. Forexample, prior to an invocation that is based on detecting a gesture anddirected gaze, an automated assistant may perform only limited (or no)processing of certain sensor data such as audio data, video/image data,etc. For instance, prior to invocation, the automated assistant canlocally process some sensor data in monitoring for an explicitinvocation, but will “discard” the data after local processing andwithout causing the data to be processed by one or more additionalcomponents that implement the automated assistant (e.g., remote serverdevice(s) that process user inputs and generate appropriate responses).However, in response to invocation, such data can be processed by theadditional component(s). In these and other manners, processing and/ornetwork resources can be reduced by only transmitting and/or performingcertain processing of certain sensor data in response to an invocation.

Also, for example, prior to explicit invocation, an automated assistantcan render (e.g., graphically) only limited (or no) content. However, inresponse to invocation, the automated assistant can render othercontent, such as content that is tailored to a user that invoked theautomated assistant. For example, prior to explicit invocation nocontent may be graphically rendered via a display screen controlled bythe automated assistant, or only limited lower-power consumption contentmay be rendered (e.g., only the current time on a small portion of thedisplay screen). However, in response to invocation, the automatedassistant can cause additional and optionally higher-power consumptioncontent to be graphically rendered via the display screen and/or audiblyrendered via speaker(s), such as a weather forecast, a daily eventsummary, and/or other content that may be displayed more brightly on thedisplay screen and/or occupy a greater portion of the display screen. Inthese and other manners, power consumption can be reduced via displayinglower-power consumption content (or no content) prior to invocation, andonly displaying the higher-power consumption content in response toinvocation.

In some implementations, in monitoring for a particular gesture and inmonitoring for a gaze that is directed to the client device, trainedmachine learning model(s) (e.g., neural network model(s)) that arestored locally on the client device are utilized by the client device toat least selectively process at least portions of vision data fromvision component(s) of the client device (e.g., image frames fromcamera(s) of the client device). For example, in response to detectingpresence of one or more users, the client device can process, for atleast a duration (e.g., for at least a threshold duration and/or untilpresence is no longer detected) at least portion(s) of vision datautilizing the locally stored machine learning model(s) in monitoring forthe particular gesture and the directed gaze. The client device candetect presence of one or more users using a dedicated presence sensor(e.g., a passive infrared sensor (PIR)), using vision data and aseparate machine learning model (e.g., a separate machine learning modeltrained solely for human presence detection), and/or using audio dataand a separate machine learning model (e.g., VAD using a VAD machinelearning model). In implementations where processing of vision data inmonitoring for a particular gesture is contingent on first detectingpresence of one or more users, power resources can be conserved throughthe non-continual processing of vision data in monitoring for gesture(s)and/or a directed gaze. Rather, in those implementations, the processingof vision data in monitoring for gesture(s) and/or a directed gaze canoccur only in response to detecting, via one or more lower-powerconsumption techniques, presence of one or more user(s) in anenvironment of the assistant device.

In some implementations where local machine learning model(s) areutilized in monitoring for a particular gesture and a directed gaze, atleast one gesture detection machine learning model is utilized inmonitoring for the gesture, and a separate gaze detection machinelearning model is utilized in monitoring for the gaze. In some versionsof those implementations, one or more “upstream” models (e.g., objectdetection and classification model(s)) can be utilized to detectportions of vision data (e.g., image(s)) that are likely a face, likelyeye(s), likely arms/body, etc.—and those portion(s) processed using arespective machine learning model. For example, face and/or eyeportion(s) of an image can be detected using the upstream model, andprocessed using the gaze detection machine learning model. Also, forexample, arms and/or body portion(s) of an image can be detected usingthe upstream model, and processed using the gesture detection machinelearning model. As yet another example, human portion(s) of an image canbe detected using the upstream model, and processed using both the gazedetection machine learning model and the gesture detection machinelearning model.

Optionally, the gaze detection machine learning model can process higherresolution vision data (e.g., images) than the gesture detection machinelearning model. This can enable utilization of the gesture detectionmachine learning model to be more efficient through the processing oflower resolution images. Further, optionally the gaze detection machinelearning model can be utilized to process portion(s) of an image onlyafter the gesture detection machine learning model has been utilized todetect a likely gesture (or vice versa). This can also lead tocomputational efficiencies, by not continuously processing image datautilizing both models.

In some implementations, face matching, eye matching, voice matching,and/or other techniques can be utilized to identify a particular userprofile that is associated with the gesture and/or directed gaze, andcontent rendered, by the automated assistant application of the clientdevice, which is tailored to the particular user profile. The renderingof the tailored content can be one of the function(s) of the automatedassistant that is invoked in response to detecting the gesture anddirected gaze. Optionally, identification of the particular user profileoccurs only after a directed gaze and gesture have been detected. Insome implementations, and as mentioned above, for invocation detectionthe occurrence of one or more additional conditions can also berequired—where the additional condition(s) are in addition to gazeand/or gesture detection. For example, in some implementations theadditional condition(s) can include identifying that the user providingthe gesture and the directed gaze is associated with user profile thatis authorized for the client device (e.g., using face matching, voicematching, and/or other techniques).

In some implementations, certain portions of video(s)/image(s) can befiltered out/ignored/weighted less heavily in detecting gesture and/orgaze. For example, a television captured in video(s)/image(s) can beignored to prevent false detections as a result of a person rendered bythe television (e.g., a weatherperson). For instance, a portion of animage can be determined to correspond to a television based on aseparate object detection/classification machine learning model, inresponse to detecting a certain display frequency in that portion (i.e.,that matches a television refresh rate) over multiple frames for thatportion, etc. Such a portion can be ignored in gesture and/or directedgaze detection techniques described herein, to prevent detection of agesture and/or directed gaze from a television or other video displaydevice. As another example, picture frames can be ignored. These andother techniques can mitigate false-positive invocations of an automatedassistant, which can conserve various computational and/or networkresources that would otherwise be consumed in a false-positiveinvocation. Also, in various implementations, once a TV, picture frame,etc. location is detected, it can optionally continue to be ignored overmultiple frames (e.g., while verifying intermittently, until movement ofclient device or object(s) is detected, etc.). This can also conservevarious computational resources.

The above description is provided as an overview of variousimplementations disclosed herein. Those various implementations, as wellas additional implementations, are described in more detail herein.

In some implementations, a method is performed by one or more processorsof a client device that facilitates touch-free interaction between oneor more users and an automated assistant. The method includes receivinga stream of image frames that are based on output from one or morecameras of the client device. The method further includes processing theimage frames of the stream using at least one trained machine learningmodel stored locally on the client device to monitor for occurrence ofboth: an invocation gesture of a user captured by at least one of theimage frames, and a gaze of the user that is directed toward the clientdevice. The method further includes detecting, based on the monitoring,occurrence of both: the invocation gesture, and the gaze. The methodfurther includes, in response to detecting the occurrence of both theinvocation gesture and the gaze: causing at least one function of theautomated assistant to be activated.

These and other implementations of the technology can include one ormore of the following features.

In some implementations, the at least one function of the automatedassistant that is activated in response to detecting the occurrence ofboth the invocation gesture and the gaze includes: transmitting of audiodata, captured via one or more microphones of the client device, to aremote server associated with the automated assistant.

In some implementations, the at least one function that is activated inresponse to detecting the occurrence of both the invocation gesture andthe gaze additionally or alternatively includes: transmitting ofadditional image frames to a remote server associated with the automatedassistant, the additional image frames based on output from one or moreof the cameras and received after detecting the occurrence of both theinvocation gesture and the gaze.

In some implementations, the at least one function that is activated inresponse to detecting the occurrence of both the invocation gesture andthe gaze additionally or alternatively includes: processing of bufferedaudio data at the client device, where the buffered audio data is storedin memory at the client device and is captured via one or moremicrophones of the client device, and where the processing of thebuffered audio data includes one or both of: invocation phrase detectionprocessing, and automatic speech recognition. In some versions of thoseimplementations, the processing of the buffered audio data includes theautomatic speech recognition, and the automatic speech recognitionincludes voice-to-text processing. In some additional or alternativeversions of those implementations, the processing of the buffered audiodata includes invocation phrase detection processing and the methodfurther includes: in response to the invocation phrase detectionprocessing detecting presence of an invocation phrase in the bufferedaudio data, performing one or both of: transmitting further audio data,captured via the one or more microphones of the client device, to aremote server associated with the automated assistant; and transmittingof additional image frames to a remote server associated with theautomated assistant, where the additional image frames are based onoutput from one or more of the cameras and received after detecting theoccurrence of both the invocation gesture and the gaze.

In some implementations, processing the image frames of the stream usingat least one trained machine learning model stored locally on the clientdevice to monitor for occurrence of both the invocation gesture and thegaze includes: using a first trained machine learning model to monitorfor occurrence of the invocation gesture; and using a second trainedmachine learning model to monitor for the gaze of the user that isdirected toward the client device. In some versions of thoseimplementations, using the second trained machine learning model tomonitor for the gaze of the user that is directed toward the clientdevice occurs only in response to detecting occurrence of the invocationgesture using the first trained machine learning model. In some of thoseversions, or in other versions, using the first trained machine learningmodel to monitor for the occurrence of the invocation gesture includesprocessing a first resolution versions of the image frames using thefirst machine learning model; and using the second trained machinelearning model to monitor for the gaze of the user includes processingsecond resolution versions of the image frames using the second machinelearning model.

In some implementations, the method further includes: receiving a streamof audio data frames that are based on output from one or moremicrophones of the client device; processing the audio data frames ofthe stream using at least one trained invocation phrase detectionmachine learning model stored locally on the client device to monitorfor occurrence of a spoken invocation phrase; and detecting theoccurrence of the spoken invocation phrase based on the monitoring forthe occurrence of the spoken invocation phrase. In some of thoseimplementations, causing the at least one function of the automatedassistant to be activated is in response to detecting the occurrence ofthe spoken invocation phrase in temporal proximity to both theinvocation gesture and the gaze. In some versions of thoseimplementations, the at least one function that is activated includesone or both of: transmitting of additional audio data frames capturedvia the one or more microphones of the client device, to a remote serverassociated with the automated assistant; and transmitting of one or moreadditional image frames from one or more of the cameras, to the remoteserver associated with the automated assistant.

In some implementations, processing the image frames of the stream usingat least one trained machine learning model stored locally on the clientdevice to monitor for occurrence of both the invocation gesture and thegaze includes: processing the image frames using a first trained machinelearning model to predict a region of the image frames that includes ahuman face; and processing the region of the image frames using a secondtrained machine learning model trained to detect the gaze of the user.

In some implementations, processing the image frames of the stream usingat least one trained machine learning model stored locally on the clientdevice to monitor for occurrence of both the invocation gesture and thegaze includes: determining that a region of the image frames correspondsto an electronic display; and in response to determining that the regioncorresponds to the electronic display, ignoring the region in monitoringfor the occurrence of both the invocation gesture and the gaze. In someof those implementations, determining that the region of the imageframes corresponds to the electronic display is based on detecting adisplay frequency, in the region of the image frames, which correspondsto a display frequency of an electronic display.

In some implementations, the method further includes: detecting, basedon a signal from a presence sensor, that a human is present in anenvironment of the client device; and causing the one or more cameras toprovide the stream of image frames in response to detecting that thehuman is present in the environment.

In some implementations, a client device is provided that includes atleast one vision component, at least one microphone, one or moreprocessors, and memory operably coupled with the one or more processors.The memory stores instructions that, in response to execution of theinstructions by one or more of the processors, cause one or more of theprocessors to perform the following operations: receiving a stream ofvision data that is based on output from the vision component of theclient device; processing the vision data using at least one trainedmachine learning model stored locally on the client device to monitorfor occurrence of both: an invocation gesture of a user captured by thevision data, and a gaze of the user that is directed toward the clientdevice; detecting, based on the monitoring, occurrence of both: theinvocation gesture, and the gaze; and in response to detecting theoccurrence of both the invocation gesture and the gaze: transmitting, bythe client device to one or more remote automated assistant components,one or both of: additional vision data that is based on output from thevision component, and audio data that is based on output from themicrophone of the client device. The operations can optionally furtherinclude receiving, in response to the transmitting, responsive content;and rendering the responsive content via one or more user interfaceoutput devices of the client device.

In some implementations, a system is provided that includes at least onevision component and one or more processors receiving a stream of visiondata that is based on output from the vision component. One or more ofthe processors are configured to: process the vision data using at leastone trained machine learning model stored locally on the client deviceto monitor for occurrence of both: an invocation gesture of a usercaptured by the vision data, and a gaze of the user that is directedtoward the client device; detect, based on the monitoring, occurrence ofboth: the invocation gesture, and the gaze; and in response to detectingthe occurrence of both the invocation gesture and the gaze: cause atleast one function of the automated assistant to be activated.

In addition, some implementations include one or more processors of oneor more computing devices, where the one or more processors are operableto execute instructions stored in associated memory, and where theinstructions are configured to cause performance of any of theaforementioned methods. Some implementations also include one or morenon-transitory computer readable storage media storing computerinstructions executable by one or more processors to perform any of theaforementioned methods.

It should be appreciated that all combinations of the foregoing conceptsand additional concepts described in greater detail herein arecontemplated as being part of the subject matter disclosed herein. Forexample, all combinations of claimed subject matter appearing at the endof this disclosure are contemplated as being part of the subject matterdisclosed herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example environment in whichimplementations disclosed herein may be implemented.

FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B, and FIG. 2C depict example process flows thatdemonstrate various aspects of the present disclosure, in accordancewith various implementations.

FIG. 3 depicts an example of an assistant device and a user providing agesture and a directed gaze, and also depicts an image captured by acamera of the assistant device when the user is providing the gestureand directed gaze.

FIG. 4A depicts a flowchart illustrating an example method according toimplementations disclosed herein.

FIG. 4B depicts a flowchart illustrating a particular example of certainblocks of the example method of FIG. 4A.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example architecture of a computing device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment in which techniques disclosedherein may be implemented. The example environment includes one or moreclient computing devices 106. Each client device 106 may execute arespective instance of an automated assistant client 110. One or morecloud-based automated assistant components 130 can be implemented on oneor more computing systems (collectively referred to as a “cloud”computing system) that are communicatively coupled to client devices 106via one or more local and/or wide area networks (e.g., the Internet)indicated generally at 114. The cloud-based automated assistantcomponents 130 can be implemented, for example, via a cluster ofhigh-performance servers.

In various implementations, an instance of an automated assistant client110, by way of its interactions with one or more cloud-based automatedassistant components 130, may form what appears to be, from a user'sperspective, a logical instance of an automated assistant 120 with whichthe user may engage in a human-to-computer interactions (e.g., spokeninteractions, gesture-based interactions, and/or touch-basedinteractions). One instance of such an automated assistant 120 isdepicted in FIG. 1 in dashed line. It thus should be understood thateach user that engages with an automated assistant client 110 executingon a client device 106 may, in effect, engage with his or her ownlogical instance of an automated assistant 120. For the sakes of brevityand simplicity, the term “automated assistant” as used herein as“serving” a particular user will refer to the combination of anautomated assistant client 110 executing on a client device 106 operatedby the user and optionally one or more cloud-based automated assistantcomponents 130 (which may be shared amongst multiple automated assistantclients 110). It should also be understood that in some implementations,automated assistant 120 may respond to a request from any userregardless of whether the user is actually “served” by that particularinstance of automated assistant 120.

The one or more client devices 106 may include, for example, one or moreof: a desktop computing device, a laptop computing device, a tabletcomputing device, a mobile phone computing device, a computing device ofa vehicle of the user (e.g., an in-vehicle communications system, anin-vehicle entertainment system, an in-vehicle navigation system), astandalone interactive speaker (which in some cases may include a visionsensor), a smart appliance such as a smart television (or a standardtelevision equipped with a networked dongle with automated assistantcapabilities), and/or a wearable apparatus of the user that includes acomputing device (e.g., a watch of the user having a computing device,glasses of the user having a computing device, a virtual or augmentedreality computing device). Additional and/or alternative clientcomputing devices may be provided. As noted previously, some clientdevices 106 may take the form of assistant devices that are primarilydesigned to facilitate interactions between users and automatedassistant 120 (e.g., a standalone interactive device with speaker(s) anda display).

Client device 106 can be equipped with one or more vision components 107having one or more fields of view. Vision component(s) 107 may takevarious forms, such as monographic cameras, stereographic cameras, aLIDAR component, a radar component, etc. The one or more visioncomponents 107 may be used, e.g., by a visual capture module 114, tocapture vision frames (e.g., image frames (still images or video)) of anenvironment in which client device 106 is deployed. These vision framesmay then be at least selectively analyzed, e.g., by a gaze and gesturemodule 116 of invocation engine 115, to monitor for occurrence of: aparticular gesture (of one or more candidate gestures) of a usercaptured by the vision frames and/or a directed gaze from the user(i.e., a gaze that is directed toward the client device 106). The gazeand gesture module 116 can utilize one or more trained machine learningmodels 117 in monitoring for occurrence of a particular gesture and/or adirected gaze.

In response to detection of the particular gesture and the directed gaze(and optionally in response to detection of one or more othercondition(s) by other conditions module 118), the invocation engine 115can invoke one or more previously dormant functions of the automatedassistant 120. Such dormant functions can include, for example,processing of certain sensor data (e.g., audio data, video, image(s),etc.) and/or rendering (e.g., graphically and/or audibly) of certaincontent.

As one non-limiting example, prior to detection of the particulargesture and the directed gaze, vision data and/or audio data captured atthe client device 106 can be processed and/or temporarily buffered onlylocally at the client device 106 (i.e., without transmission to thecloud-based automated assistant component(s) 130). However, in responseto detection of the particular gesture and the directed gaze, audio dataand/or vision data (e.g., recently buffered data and/or data receivedafter the detection) can be transmitted to the cloud-based automatedassistant component(s) 130 for further processing. For example, thedetection of the particular gesture and the directed gaze can obviate aneed for the user to speak an explicit invocation phrase (e.g., “OKAssistant”) in order to cause a spoken utterance of the user to be fullyprocessed by the automated assistant 120, and responsive contentgenerated by the automated assistant 120 and rendered to the user.

For instance, rather than the user needing to speak “OK Assistant,what's today's forecast” to obtain today's forecast, the user couldinstead: perform a particular gesture, look at the client device 106,and speak only “what's today's forecast” during or temporally near(e.g., within a threshold of time before and/or after) performing thegesture and/or looking at the client device 106. Data corresponding tothe spoken utterance “What's today's forecast” (e.g., audio data thatcaptures the spoken utterance, or a textual or other semantic conversionthereof) can be transmitted by the client device 106 to the cloud-basedautomated assistant component(s) 130 in response to detecting thegesture and the directed gaze, and in response to the spoken utterancebeing received during and/or temporally near the gesture and directedgaze. In another example, rather than the user needing to speak “OKAssistant, turn up the heat” to increase the temperature of his/her homevia a connected thermostat, the user could instead: perform a particulargesture, look at the client device 106, and speak only “turn up theheat” during or temporally near (e.g., within a threshold of time beforeand/or after) performing the gesture and/or looking at the client device106. Data corresponding to the spoken utterance “turn up the heat”(e.g., audio data that captures the spoken utterance, or a textual orother semantic conversion thereof) can be transmitted by the clientdevice 106 to the cloud-based automated assistant component(s) 130 inresponse to detecting the gesture and the directed gaze, and in responseto the spoken utterance being received during and/or temporally near thegesture and directed gaze. In another example, rather than the userneeding to speak “OK Assistant, open the garage door” to open his/hergarage, the user could instead: perform a particular gesture, look atthe client device 106, and speak only “open the garage door” during ortemporally near (e.g., within a threshold of time before and/or after)performing the gesture and/or looking at the client device 106. Datacorresponding to the spoken utterance “open the garage door” (e.g.,audio data that captures the spoken utterance, or a textual or othersemantic conversion thereof) can be transmitted by the client device 106to the cloud-based automated assistant component(s) 130 in response todetecting the gesture and the directed gaze, and in response to thespoken utterance being received during and/or temporally near thegesture and directed gaze. In some implementations, the transmission ofthe data by the client device 106 can be further contingent on the othercondition module 118 determining the occurrence of one or moreadditional conditions. For example, the transmission of the data can befurther based on local voice activity detection processing of the audiodata, performed by the other conditions module 118, indicating thatvoice activity is present in the audio data. Also, for example, thetransmission of the data can additionally or alternatively be furtherbased on determining, by the other conditions module 118, that the audiodata corresponds to the user that provided the gesture and the directedgaze. For instance, a direction of the user (relative to the clientdevice 106) can be determined based on the vision data, and thetransmission of the data can be further based on determining, by theother conditions module 118, that a spoken utterance in the audio datacomes from the same direction (e.g., using beamforming and/or othertechniques). Also, for instance, a user profile of the user can bedetermined based on the vision data (e.g., using facial recognition) andthe transmission of the data can be further based on determining, by theother conditions module 118, that a spoken utterance in the audio datahas voice characteristics that match the user profile. As yet anotherexample, transmission of the data can additionally or alternatively befurther based on determining, by the other conditions module 118 basedon vision data, that mouth movement of the user co-occurred with thedetected gesture and/or directed gaze of the user, or occurred with athreshold amount of time of the detected gesture and/or directed gaze.The other conditions module 118 can optionally utilize one or more othermachine learning models 119 in determining that other condition(s) arepresent. Additional description of implementations of gaze and gesturemodule 116, and of the other conditions module 118, is provided herein(e.g., with reference to FIGS. 2A-2C).

Each of client computing device 106 and computing device(s) operatingcloud-based automated assistant components 130 may include one or morememories for storage of data and software applications, one or moreprocessors for accessing data and executing applications, and othercomponents that facilitate communication over a network. The operationsperformed by client computing device 106 and/or by automated assistant120 may be distributed across multiple computer systems. Automatedassistant 120 may be implemented as, for example, computer programsrunning on one or more computers in one or more locations that arecoupled to each other through a network.

As noted above, in various implementations, client computing device 106may operate an automated assistant client 110. In some of those variousimplementations, automated assistant client 110 may include a speechcapture module 112, the aforementioned visual capture module 114, and aninvocation engine 115, which can include the gaze and gesture module 116and optionally the other conditions module 118. In otherimplementations, one or more aspects of speech capture module 112,visual capture module 114, and/or invocation engine 115 may beimplemented separately from automated assistant client 110, e.g., by oneor more cloud-based automated assistant components 130.

In various implementations, speech capture module 112, which may beimplemented using any combination of hardware and software, mayinterface with hardware such as a microphone(s) 109 or other pressuresensor to capture an audio recording of a user's spoken utterance(s).Various types of processing may be performed on this audio recording forvarious purposes, as will be described below. In variousimplementations, visual capture module 114, which may be implementedusing any combination of hardware or software, may be configured tointerface with visual component 107 to capture one or more vision frames(e.g., digital images), that correspond to an optionally adaptable fieldof view of the vision sensor 107.

Speech capture module 112 may be configured to capture a user's speech,e.g., via a microphone(s) 109, as mentioned previously. Additionally oralternatively, in some implementations, speech capture module 112 may befurther configured to convert that captured audio to text and/or toother representations or embeddings, e.g., using speech-to-text (“STT”)processing techniques. However, because client device 106 may berelatively constrained in terms of computing resources (e.g., processorcycles, memory, battery, etc.), speech capture module 112 local toclient device 106 may be configured to convert a finite number ofdifferent spoken phrases-such as phrases that invoke automated assistant120—to text (or to other forms, such as lower dimensionalityembeddings). Other speech input may be sent to cloud-based automatedassistant components 130, which may include a cloud-based STT module132.

Cloud-based TTS module 131 may be configured to leverage the virtuallylimitless resources of the cloud to convert textual data (e.g., naturallanguage responses formulated by automated assistant 120) intocomputer-generated speech output. In some implementations, TTS module131 may provide the computer-generated speech output to client device106 to be output directly, e.g., using one or more speakers. In otherimplementations, textual data (e.g., natural language responses)generated by automated assistant 120 may be provided to client device106, and a local TTS module of client device 106 may then convert thetextual data into computer-generated speech that is output locally.

Cloud-based STT module 132 may be configured to leverage the virtuallylimitless resources of the cloud to convert audio data captured byspeech capture module 112 into text, which may then be provided tonatural language understanding module 135. In some implementations,cloud-based STT module 132 may convert an audio recording of speech toone or more phonemes, and then convert the one or more phonemes to text.Additionally or alternatively, in some implementations, STT module 132may employ a state decoding graph. In some implementations, STT module132 may generate a plurality of candidate textual interpretations of theuser's utterance, and utilize one or more techniques to select a giveninterpretation from the candidates.

Automated assistant 120 (and in particular, cloud-based automatedassistant components 130) may include an intent understanding module135, the aforementioned TTS module 131, the aforementioned STT module132, and other components that are described in more detail herein. Insome implementations, one or more of the modules and/or modules ofautomated assistant 120 may be omitted, combined, and/or implemented ina component that is separate from automated assistant 120. In someimplementations one or more of the components of automated assistant120, such as intent understanding module 135, TTS module 131, STT module132, etc., may be implemented at least on part on client devices 106(e.g., in combination with, or to the exclusion of, the cloud-basedimplementations).

In some implementations, automated assistant 120 generates variouscontent for audible and/or graphical rendering to a user via the clientdevice 106. For example, automated assistant 120 may generate contentsuch as a weather forecast, a daily schedule, etc., and can cause thecontent to be rendered in response to detecting a gesture and/ordirected gaze from the user as described herein. Also, for example,automated assistant 120 may generate content in response to a free-formnatural language input of the user provided via client device 106, inresponse to gestures of the user that are detected via vision data fromvisual component 107 of client device, etc. As used herein, free-forminput is input that is formulated by a user and that is not constrainedto a group of options presented for selection by the user. The free-forminput can be, for example, typed input and/or spoken input.

Natural language processor 133 of intent understanding module 135processes natural language input generated by user(s) via client device106 and may generate annotated output (e.g., in textual form) for use byone or more other components of automated assistant 120. For example,the natural language processor 133 may process natural languagefree-form input that is generated by a user via one or more userinterface input devices of client device 106. The generated annotatedoutput includes one or more annotations of the natural language inputand one or more (e.g., all) of the terms of the natural language input.

In some implementations, the natural language processor 133 isconfigured to identify and annotate various types of grammaticalinformation in natural language input. For example, the natural languageprocessor 133 may include a morphological module that may separateindividual words into morphemes and/or annotate the morphemes, e.g.,with their classes. Natural language processor 133 may also include apart of speech tagger configured to annotate terms with theirgrammatical roles. Also, for example, in some implementations thenatural language processor 133 may additionally and/or alternativelyinclude a dependency parser (not depicted) configured to determinesyntactic relationships between terms in natural language input.

In some implementations, the natural language processor 133 mayadditionally and/or alternatively include an entity tagger (notdepicted) configured to annotate entity references in one or moresegments such as references to people (including, for instance, literarycharacters, celebrities, public figures, etc.), organizations, locations(real and imaginary), and so forth. In some implementations, data aboutentities may be stored in one or more databases, such as in a knowledgegraph (not depicted), and the entity tagger of the natural languageprocessor 133 can utilize such database(s) in entity tagging.

In some implementations, the natural language processor 133 mayadditionally and/or alternatively include a coreference resolver (notdepicted) configured to group, or “cluster,” references to the sameentity based on one or more contextual cues. For example, thecoreference resolver may be utilized to resolve the term “there” to“Hypothetical Café” in the natural language input “I liked HypotheticalCafé last time we ate there.”

In some implementations, one or more components of the natural languageprocessor 133 may rely on annotations from one or more other componentsof the natural language processor 133. For example, in someimplementations the named entity tagger may rely on annotations from thecoreference resolver and/or dependency parser in annotating all mentionsto a particular entity. Also, for example, in some implementations thecoreference resolver may rely on annotations from the dependency parserin clustering references to the same entity. In some implementations, inprocessing a particular natural language input, one or more componentsof the natural language processor 133 may use related prior input and/orother related data outside of the particular natural language input todetermine one or more annotations.

Intent understanding module 135 may also include an intent matcher 134that is configured to determine an intent of a user engaged in aninteraction with automated assistant 120. While depicted separately fromnatural language processor 133 in FIG. 1 , in other implementations,intent matcher 134 may be an integral part of natural language processor133 (or more generally, of a pipeline that includes natural languageprocessor 133). In some implementations, natural language processor 133and intent matcher 134 may collectively form the aforementioned intentunderstanding module 135.

Intent matcher 134 may use various techniques to determine an intent ofthe user, e.g., based on output from natural language processor 133(which may include annotations and terms of the natural language input),based on user touch inputs at a touch-sensitive display of client device106, and/or based on gestures and/or other visual cues detected invision data. In some implementations, intent matcher 134 may have accessto one or more databases (not depicted) that include, for instance, aplurality of mappings between grammars and responsive actions (or moregenerally, intents), visual cues and responsive actions, and/or touchinputs and responsive actions. For example, the grammars included in themappings can be selected and/or learned over time, and may representcommon intents of users. For example, one grammar, “play <artist>”, maybe mapped to an intent that invokes a responsive action that causesmusic by the <artist> to be played on the client device 106 operated bythe user. Another grammar, “[weatherIforecast] today,” may be match-ableto user queries such as “what's the weather today” and “what's theforecast for today?” As another example, the visual cue to actionmappings can include “general” mappings that are applicable to multipleusers (e.g., all users) and/or user-specific mappings. Some examples ofvisual cue to action mappings include mappings for gestures. Forinstance, a “wave” gesture can be mapped to an action of causingtailored content (tailored to the user providing the gesture) to berendered to the user, a “thumbs up” gesture can be mapped to a “playmusic” action; and a “high five” gesture can be mapped to a “routine” ofautomated assistant actions to be performed, such as turning on a smartcoffee maker, turning on certain smart lights, and audibly rendering anews summary.

In addition to or instead of grammars, in some implementations, intentmatcher 134 may employ one or more trained machine learning models,alone or in combination with one or more grammars, visual cues, and/ortouch inputs. These trained machine learning models may also be storedin one or more databases and may be trained to identify intents, e.g.,by embedding data indicative of a user's utterance and/or any detecteduser-provided visual cues into a reduced dimensionality space, and thendetermining which other embeddings (and therefore, intents) are mostproximate, e.g., using techniques such as Euclidean distance, cosinesimilarity, etc.

As seen in the “play <artist>” example grammar above, some grammars haveslots (e.g., <artist>) that can be filled with slot values (or“parameters”). Slot values may be determined in various ways. Oftenusers will provide the slot values proactively. For example, for agrammar “Order me a <topping> pizza,” a user may likely speak the phrase“order me a sausage pizza,” in which case the slot <topping> is filledautomatically. Additionally or alternatively, if a user invokes agrammar that includes slots to be filled with slot values, without theuser proactively providing the slot values, automated assistant 120 maysolicit those slot values from the user (e.g., “what type of crust doyou want on your pizza?”). In some implementations, slots may be filledwith slot values based on visual cues detected based on vision datacaptured by vision component 107. For example, a user could uttersomething like “Order me this many cat bowls” while holding up threefingers to visual component 107 of client device 106. Or, a user couldutter something like “Find me more movies like this” while holding of aDVD case for a particular movie.

In some implementations, automated assistant 120 may facilitate (or“broker”) transactions between users and agents, which may beindependent software processes that receive input and provide responsiveoutput. Some agents may take the form of third party applications thatmay or may not operate on computing systems that are separate from thosethat operate, for instance, cloud-based automated assistant components130. One kind of user intent that may be identified by intent matcher134 is to engage a third party application. For example, automatedassistant 120 may provide access to an application programming interface(“API”) to a pizza delivery service. A user may invoke automatedassistant 120 and provide a command such as “I'd like to order a pizza.”Intent matcher 134 may map this command to a grammar that triggersautomated assistant 120 to engage with the third party pizza deliveryservice. The third party pizza delivery service may provide automatedassistant 120 with a minimum list of slots that need to be filled inorder to fulfill a pizza delivery order. Automated assistant 120 maygenerate and provide to the user (via client device 106) naturallanguage output that solicits parameters for the slots.

Fulfillment module 138 may be configured to receive thepredicted/estimated intent that is output by intent matcher 134, as wellas an associated slot values (whether provided by the user proactivelyor solicited from the user) and fulfill (or “resolve”) the intent. Invarious implementations, fulfillment (or “resolution”) of the user'sintent may cause various fulfillment information (also referred to as“responsive” information or data) to be generated/obtained, e.g., byfulfillment module 138.

Fulfillment information may take various forms because an intent can befulfilled in a variety of ways. Suppose a user requests pureinformation, such as “Where were the outdoor shots of ‘The Shining’filmed?” The intent of the user may be determined, e.g., by intentmatcher 134, as being a search query. The intent and content of thesearch query may be provided to fulfillment module 138, which asdepicted in FIG. 1 may be in communication with one or more searchmodules 150 configured to search corpuses of documents and/or other datasources (e.g., knowledge graphs, etc.) for responsive information.Fulfillment module 138 may provide data indicative of the search query(e.g., the text of the query, a reduced dimensionality embedding, etc.)to search module 150. Search module 150 may provide responsiveinformation, such as GPS coordinates, or other more explicitinformation, such as “Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood, Oreg.” This responsiveinformation may form part of the fulfillment information generated byfulfillment module 138.

Additionally or alternatively, fulfillment module 138 may be configuredto receive, e.g., from intent understanding module 135, a user's intentand any slot values provided by the user or determined using other means(e.g., GPS coordinates of the user, user preferences, etc.) and triggera responsive action. Responsive actions may include, for instance,ordering a good/service, starting a timer, setting a reminder,initiating a phone call, playing media, sending a message, initiating aroutine of multiple actions, etc. In some such implementations,fulfillment information may include slot values associated with thefulfillment, confirmation responses (which may be selected frompredetermined responses in some cases), etc.

Additionally or alternatively, fulfillment module 138 may be configuredto infer intent(s) of a user (e.g., based on time of day, pastinteractions, etc.) and obtain responsive information for thoseintent(s). For example, the fulfillment module 138 can be configured toobtain a daily calendar summary for a user, a weather forecast for theuser, and/or other content for the user. The fulfillment module 138 canfurther cause such content to be “pushed” for graphical and/or audiblerendering to the user. For example, the rendering of such content can bethe dormant functionality that is invoked in response to invocationengine 115 detecting the occurrence of a particular gesture and adirected gaze.

Natural language generator 136 may be configured to generate and/orselect natural language output (e.g., words/phrases that are designed tomimic human speech) based on data obtained from various sources. In someimplementations, natural language generator 136 may be configured toreceive, as input, fulfillment information associated with fulfillmentof an intent, and to generate natural language output based on thefulfillment information. Additionally or alternatively, natural languagegenerator 136 may receive information from other sources, such as thirdparty applications, which it may use to compose natural language outputfor the user.

Referring now to FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C, various examples are depicted ofhow gaze and gesture module 116 can detect a particular gesture and/or adirected gaze, and how invocation engine 115 can invoke one or morepreviously dormant automated assistant functions in response.

Turning initially to FIG. 2A, visual capture module 114 provides visionframes to gaze and gesture module 116. In some implementations, visualcapture module 114 provides a real-time stream of vision frames to thegaze and gesture module 116. In some of those implementations, thevisual capture module 114 begins providing the vision frames in responseto signals from a separate presence sensor 105 indicating that a humanis present in the environment with the client device 106. For example,the presence sensor 105 can be PIR sensor and can provide a signal tovisual capture module 114 in response to detecting human presence.Visual capture module 114 may refrain from providing any vision framesto gaze and gesture module 116 unless human presence is detected. Inother implementations where visual capture module 114 only selectivelyprovides vision frames to the gaze and gesture module 116, additionaland/or alternative cues can be utilized to initiate such provisioning.For example, human presence can be detected based on audio data fromspeech capture module 112, based on analysis of vision frames by one ormore other components, and/or other signals.

The gaze and gesture module 116 processes the vision frames using one ormore machine learning models 117 to monitor for the occurrence of both adirected gaze and a particular gesture. When both the directed gaze andthe particular gesture are detected, the gaze and gesture module 116provides an indication of detection of the gaze and gesture toinvocation engine 115.

In FIG. 2A, the visual frames and/or audio data (provided by speechcapture module 112) are also provided to other conditions module 118.The other conditions module 118 processes the provided data, optionallyusing one or more other machine learning models 119, to monitor foroccurrence of one or more other conditions. For example, the otherconditions can be detecting any voice activity based on the audio data;detecting presence of a spoken invocation phrase in the audio data;detecting, based on the audio data voice activity that is from adirection or location of the user; detecting, based on the visualframe(s) and/or the audio data that the user is an authorized user;detecting, based on the visual frames, mouth movement of the user (thatprovided the gesture and the directed gaze); etc. When the othercondition(s) are detected, the other conditions module 118 provides anindication of the occurrence of the other conditions to invocationengine 115.

When the invocation engine 115 receives an indication of the directedgaze and gesture, and a temporally proximate indication of the otherconditions, the invocation engine 115 causes invocation of dormantfunction(s) 101. For example, the invocation of the dormant function(s)101 can include one or more of: activating a display screen of theclient device 106; causing content to be visually and/or audiblyrendered by the client device 106; causing visual frames and/or audiodata to be transmitted by the client device 106 to one or morecloud-based automated assistant component(s) 130; etc.

In some implementations, and as described in more detail with respect toFIGS. 2B and 2C, the gaze and gesture module 116 can use one or morefirst machine learning models 117 for detecting a directed gaze, and oneor more second machine learning models 117 for detecting gestures.

In some other implementations, the gaze and gesture module 116 canutilize an end-to-end machine learning model that accepts, as input,visual frames (or features thereof) and that can be utilized to generate(based on processing of the input over the model) output that indicateswhether a particular gesture and a directed gaze have occurred. Such amachine learning model can be, for example, a neural network model, suchas a recurrent neural network (RNN) model that includes one or morememory layers (e.g., long short-term memory (LSTM) layer(s)). Trainingof such an RNN model can be based on training examples that include, astraining example input, a sequence of visual frames (e.g., a video) and,as training example output, an indication of whether the sequenceincludes both a gesture and a directed gaze. For example, the trainingexample output can be a single value that indicates whether both thegesture and directed gaze are present. As another example, the trainingexample output can include a first value that indicates whether adirected gaze is present and N additional values that each indicatewhether a corresponding one of N gestures is included (thereby enablingtraining of the model to predict a corresponding probability for each ofN separate gestures). As yet another example, the training exampleoutput can include a first value that indicates whether a directed gazeis present and a second value that indicates whether any of one or moreparticular gestures is present (thereby enabling training of the modelto predict a probability that corresponds to whether any gesture isincluded).

In implementations where the model is trained to predict a correspondingprobability for each of N separate gestures, the gaze and gesture module116 can optionally provide invocation engine 115 with an indication ofwhich of the N gestures occurred. Further, the invocation of the dormantfunctions 101 by the invocation engine 115 can be dependent on which ofthe N separate gestures occurred. For example, for a “wave” gesture theinvocation engine 115 can cause certain content to be rendered on adisplay screen of the client device; for a “thumbs up” gesture theinvocation engine 115 can cause audio data and/or visual frame(s) to betransmitted to cloud-based automated assistant component(s) 130; and fora “high five” gesture the invocation engine 115 can cause a “routine” ofautomated assistant actions to be performed, such as turning on a smartcoffee maker, turning on certain smart lights, and audibly rendering anews summary.

FIG. 2B illustrates an example where gesture and gaze detection module116 includes a gesture module 116A that utilizes a gesture machinelearning model 117A in monitoring for occurrence of a gesture, andincludes a gaze module 116B that utilizes a gaze machine learning model117B in monitoring for occurrence of a directed gaze. Other condition(s)module 118 is not illustrated in FIG. 2B for simplicity, but can alsooptionally be utilized in combination with gesture module 116A and 117Bin a similar manner as described with respect to FIG. 2A.

In FIG. 2B, visual capture module 114 provides vision frames. Lowerresolution versions of the vision frames are provided to gesture module116A and higher resolution versions of the vision frames are stored in abuffer 104. The lower resolution versions are of a lower resolutionrelative to the higher resolution versions. The higher resolutionversions can be uncompressed, or compressed less relative to the lowerresolution versions. The buffer 104 can be a first in first out bufferand can temporarily store a most recent duration of higher resolutionvision frames.

In the example of FIG. 2B, the gesture module 116A can process the lowerresolution vision frames in monitoring for presence of a gesture and thegaze module 116B can be inactive until the gesture module 116A detectsthe occurrence of a gesture. When occurrence of the gesture is detected,the gesture module 116A can provide an indication of detection of thegesture to the gaze module 116B and to the invocation engine 115. Thegaze module 116B can be activated in response to receiving theindication of detection of the gesture, retrieve buffered higherresolution vision frames from the buffer 104, and utilize the bufferedhigher resolution vision frames (and optionally further higherresolution vision frames) in determining whether a directed gaze ispresent. In this manner, the gaze module 116B is only selectivelyactivated, thereby conserving computational resources that wouldotherwise be consumed by additional processing of higher resolutionvision frames by the gaze module 116B.

The gesture module 116A can use one or more gesture machine learningmodels 117A for detecting a particular gesture. Such a machine learningmodel can be, for example, a neural network model, such as an RNN modelthat includes one or more memory layers. Training of such an RNN modelcan be based on training examples that include, as training exampleinput, a sequence of visual frames (e.g., a video) and, as trainingexample output, an indication of whether the sequence includes one ormore particular gestures. For example, the training example output canbe a single value that indicates whether a single particular gesture ispresent. For instance, the single value can be a “0” when the singleparticular gesture is not present and a “1” when the single particulargesture is present. In some of those examples, multiple gesture machinelearning models 117A are utilized, each tailored to a different singleparticular gesture. As another example, the training example output caninclude N values that each indicate whether a corresponding one of Ngestures is included (thereby enabling training of the model to predicta corresponding probability for each of N separate gestures). Inimplementations where the model is trained to predict a correspondingprobability for each of N separate gestures, the gesture module 116A canoptionally provide invocation engine 115 with an indication of which ofthe N gestures occurred. Further, the invocation of the dormantfunctions by the invocation engine 115 can be dependent on which of theN separate gestures occurred.

The gaze module 116B can use one or more gaze machine learning models117A for detecting a directed gaze. Such a machine learning model canbe, for example, a neural network model, such as a convolutional neuralnetwork (CNN) model. Training of such a CNN model can be based ontraining examples that include, as training example input, a visualframes (e.g., an image) and, as training example output, an indicationof whether the image includes a directed gaze. For example, the trainingexample output can be a single value that indicates whether directedgaze is present. For example, the single value can be a “0” when nodirected gaze is present, a “1” when a gaze is present that is directeddirectly at, or within 5 degrees of, a sensor that captures the image, a“0.75” when a gaze is present that is directed within 5-10 degrees of asensor that captures the image, etc.

In some of those and/or other implementations, the gaze module 116Bdetermines a directed gaze only when a directed gaze is detected with atleast a threshold probability and/or for at least a threshold duration.For example, a stream of image frames can be processed using the CNNmodel and processing each frame can result in a correspondingprobability that the frame includes a directed gaze. The gaze module candetermine there is a directed gaze only if at least X % of a sequence ofimage frames (that corresponds to the threshold duration) has acorresponding probability that satisfies a threshold. For instance,assume X % is 60%, the probability threshold is 0.7, and the thresholdduration is 0.5 seconds. Further assume 10 image frames correspond to0.5 seconds. If the image frames are processed to generate probabilitiesof [0.75, 0.85, 0.5, 0.4, 0.9, 0.95, 0.85, 0.89, 0.6, 0.85], a directedgaze can be detected since 70% of the frames indicated a directed gazewith a probability that is greater than 0.7. In these and other manners,even when a user briefly diverts his/her gaze direction, a directed gazecan be detected. Additional and/or alternative machine learning models(e.g., RNN models) and/or techniques can be utilized to detect adirected gaze that occurs with at least a threshold duration.

FIG. 2C illustrates another example where gesture and gaze detectionmodule 116 includes a gesture module 116A that utilizes a gesturemachine learning model 117A in monitoring for occurrence of a gesture,and includes a gaze module 116B that utilizes a gaze machine learningmodel 117B in monitoring for occurrence of a directed gaze. Othercondition(s) module 118 is not illustrated in FIG. 2B for simplicity,but can also optionally be utilized in combination with gesture module116A and 117B in a similar manner as described with respect to FIG. 2A.Also, buffer 104 and higher resolution/lower resolution vision frames ofFIG. 2B are not illustrated in FIG. 2C for simplicity, but similartechniques can be implemented in FIG. 2C (e.g., higher resolutionportions of vision frames can be provided to gaze module 116B).

In FIG. 2C, visual capture module 114 provides vision frames todetection and classification module 116C. Detection and classificationmodule 116C utilizes an object detection and classification machinelearning model 117C to classify various regions of each vision frame.For example, detection and classification module 116C can classify humanregion(s) (if any) of each vision frame that corresponds to a human andprovide an indication of such human region(s), for each vision frame, togesture module 116A and gaze module 116B. Also, for example, detectionand classification module 116C can classify region(s) (if any) of eachvision frame that corresponds to body region(s) (e.g., arms and torso)of a human and provide an indication of such region(s), for each visionframe, to gesture module 116A. Also, for example, detection andclassification module 116C can classify region(s) (if any) of eachvision frame that corresponds to face region(s) of a human and providean indication of such region(s), for each vision frame, to gaze module116B.

In some implementations, the gesture module 116A can utilize theprovided region(s) to process only corresponding portion(s) of eachvision frame. For example, the gesture module 116A can “crop” and resizethe vision frames to process only those portion(s) that include humanand/or body region(s). In some of those implementations, the gesturemachine learning model(s) 117A can be trained based on vision framesthat are “cropped” and the resizing can be to a size that conforms toinput dimensions of such a model. In some additional or alternativeimplementations, the gesture module 116A can utilize the providedregion(s) to skip processing of some vision frames all together (e.g.,those indicated as not including human and/or body regions). In yetother implementations, the gesture module 116A can utilize the providedregion(s) as an attention mechanism (e.g., as a separate attention inputto the gesture machine learning model 117A) to focus the processing ofeach vision frame.

Likewise, in some implementations, the gaze module 116B can utilize theprovided region(s) to process only corresponding portion(s) of eachvision frame. For example, the gaze module 116B can “crop” and resizethe vision frames to process only those portion(s) that include humanand/or face region(s). In some of those implementations, the gazemachine learning model 117B can be trained based on vision frames thatare “cropped” and the resizing can be to a size that conforms to inputdimensions of such a model. In some additional or alternativeimplementations, the gaze module 116B can utilize the provided region(s)to skip processing of some vision frames all together (e.g., thoseindicated as not including human and/or face regions). In yet otherimplementations, the gaze module 116B can utilize the provided region(s)as an attention mechanism (e.g., as a separate attention input to thegaze machine learning model 117B) to focus the processing of each visionframe.

In some implementations, detection and classification model 116C canadditionally or alternatively provide indications of certain region(s)to other conditions module 118 (not depicted in FIG. 2C for simplicity)for use by other conditions module 118. For example, face region(s) canbe used by other conditions module 118 in detecting mouth movementutilizing a corresponding mouth movement machine learning model, whenmouth movement is an additional condition for invoking inactivefunction(s).

In some implementations, detection and classification model 116C canadditionally or alternatively provide, to gesture module 116A and gazemodule 116B, indications of region(s) that are classified as TVs orother video display sources. In some of those implementations, themodules 116A and 116B can crop those region(s) out of processed visionframes, focus attention away from those regions, and/or otherwise ignorethose regions in detections or lessen the chances that detections willbe based on such regions. In these and other manners, false-positiveinvocations of dormant function(s) can be mitigated.

FIG. 3 depicts an example of client device 106 and vision component 107of FIG. 1 . In FIG. 3 , the example client device is denoted as 106A andfurther includes speaker(s) and a display. In FIG. 3 , the examplevision component is denoted as 107A and is a camera. FIG. 3 also depictsa user 301 providing a hand movement gesture (indicated by “movement”lines near the user's right hand) and a gaze that is directed to thecamera 107A.

FIG. 3 also depicts an example of an assistant device and a userproviding a gesture and a directed gaze, and also depicts an exampleimage 360 captured by the camera 107A when the user is providing thegesture and directed gaze. It can be seen that the user is captured inthe image 360, as well as a television that is behind the user (and thusnot visible in the perspective view of FIG. 3 ).

In image 360, a bounding box 361 is provided and represents a region ofthe image that can be determined (e.g., by detection and classificationmodule 116C of FIG. 2C) to correspond to a human. In someimplementations, a gesture detection module operating on client device106A can process only that portion of the image (or focus attention onthat portion) in monitoring for a particular gesture, based on thatportion being indicated as a portion that corresponds to a human.

In image 360, a bounding box 362 is also provided and represents aregion of the image that can be determined (e.g., by detection andclassification module 116C of FIG. 2C) to correspond to a face. In someimplementations, a gaze detection module operating on client device 106Acan process only that portion of the image (or focus attention on thatportion) in monitoring for a directed gaze, based on that portion beingindicated as a portion that corresponds to a face. Although only asingle image is depicted in FIG. 3 , in various implementations directedgaze detection and/or gesture detection can be based on a sequence ofimages as described herein.

In image 360, a bounding box 363 is also provided and represents aregion of the image that can be determined to correspond to a videodisplay and that might raise false positives of visual cues. Forexample, the television might render video showing one or moreindividuals making gestures, looking into the camera, etc., any of whichcould be misinterpreted as occurrence of a gesture and/or directed gaze.In some implementations, detection and classification module 116C ofFIG. 2C can determine such a region (e.g., based on detecting a TVclassification) and/or such a region can be determined based on analysisof image 360 and preceding images to determine the region has a displayfrequency that corresponds to a display frequency of a video display(e.g., approximately 60 Hz, 120 Hz, and/or other typical video displayfrequency). In some implementations, a gaze detection module and/orgesture module can crop that region out of processed vision frames,focus attention away from that region, and/or otherwise ignore thatregion in detections or lessen the chances that detections will be basedon such regions. In these and other manners, false-positive invocationsof dormant function(s) can be mitigated.

FIG. 4A is a flowchart illustrating an example method 400 according toimplementations disclosed herein. FIG. 4B is a flowchart illustrating anexample of implementations of blocks 402, 404, and 406 of FIG. 4A. Forconvenience, the operations of the flow charts of FIGS. 4A and 4B aredescribed with reference to a system that performs the operations. Thissystem may include various components of various computer systems, suchas one or more components of computing system(s) that implementautomated assistant 120 (e.g., a client device and/or remote computingsystem(s)). Moreover, while operations of method 400 are shown in aparticular order, this is not meant to be limiting. One or moreoperations may be reordered, omitted or added.

At block 402, the system receives vision data that is based on outputfrom vision component(s). In some implementations, the visioncomponent(s) can be integrated with a client device that includes anassistant client. In some implementations, the vision component(s) canbe separate from, but in communication with, the client device. Forexample, the vision component(s) can include a stand-alone smart camerathat is in wired and/or wireless communication with a client device thatincludes an assistant client.

At block 404, the system processes vision data using at least onemachine learning model, to monitor for occurrence of both: a gesture anda directed gaze.

At block 406, the system determines whether both a gesture and a gazehave been detected based on the monitoring of block 404. If not, thesystem proceeds back to block 402, receives additional vision data, andperforms another iteration of blocks 404 and 406. In someimplementations, the system determines both a gesture and a gaze havebeen detected based on detecting a gesture and directed gaze co-occur oroccur within a threshold temporal proximity of one another. In someadditional or alternative implementations, the system determines both agesture and a gaze have been detected based on detecting the gesture isof at least a threshold duration (e.g., “waving” for at least X durationor “thumbs up” for at least X duration) and/or the directed gaze is ofat least a threshold duration (which can be that same or different fromthat optionally used for the gesture duration).

If, at an iteration of block 406, the system determines that both agesture and a gaze have been detected based on the monitoring of block404, the system optionally proceeds to block 408 (or, when block 408 isnot included, directly to block 410).

At optional block 408, the system determines whether one or more otherconditions are satisfied. If not, the system proceeds back to block 402,receives additional vision data, and performs another iteration ofblocks 404, 406, and 408. If so, the system proceeds to block 410. Thesystem can determine whether one or more other conditions are satisfiedusing the vision data received at block 402, audio data, and/or othersensor or non-sensor data. Various other condition(s) can be consideredby the system, such as those explicitly described herein.

At block 410, the system activates one or more inactive automatedassistant functions. The system can activate various inactive automatedassistant functions, such as those described explicitly herein. In someimplementations different types of gestures can be monitored for inblock 404, and which inactive function(s) are activated in block 410 canbe dependent on the particular type of gesture that is detected in themonitoring of block 404.

At block 412, the system monitors for deactivation condition(s), for theautomated assistant function(s) activated at block 410. Deactivationcondition(s) can include, for example, a timeout, at least a thresholdduration of lack of lack of detected spoken input and/or detecteddirected gaze, an explicit stop command (spoken, gestured, or touchinputted), and/or other condition(s).

At block 414, the system determines whether deactivation condition(s)have been detected based on the monitoring of block 412. If not, thesystem proceeds back to block 412 and continues to monitor for thedeactivation condition(s). If so, the system can deactivate thefunction(s) activated at block 410, and proceeds back to block 402 toagain receive vision data and again monitor for the occurrence of bothan invocation gesture and a gaze.

As one example of blocks 412 and 414, where the activated function(s)include the streaming of audio data to one or more cloud-based automatedassistant component(s), the system can stop the streaming in response todetecting a lack of voice activity for at least a threshold duration(e.g., using a VAD), in response to an explicit stop command, or inresponse to detecting (through continued gaze monitoring) that theuser's gaze has not been directed to the client device for at least athreshold duration.

Turning now to FIG. 4B, one example of implementations of blocks 402,404, and 406 of FIG. 4A is illustrated. FIG. 4B illustrates an examplewhere gesture detection and directed gaze detection are performedutilizing separate models, and where monitoring for a directed gazeoccurs only in response to first detecting a gesture. In FIG. 4B, block402A is a specific example of block 402 of FIG. 4A, blocks 404A and 404Bare specific examples of block 404 of FIG. 4A, and blocks 406A and 406Bare specific examples of block 406 of FIG. 4A.

At block 402A, the system receives and buffers vision data.

At block 404A, the system processes the vision data using a gesturemachine learning model to monitor for occurrence of a gesture. In someimplementations, block 404A includes sub-block 404A1, where the systemprocesses a portion of the vision data, using the gesture machinelearning model, based on detecting that the portion corresponds to humanand/or body regions.

At block 406A, the system determines whether a gesture has been detectedbased on the monitoring of block 404A. If not, the system proceeds backto block 402A, receives and buffers additional vision data, and performsanother iteration of block 404A.

If, at an iteration of block 406A, the system determines that a gesturehas been detected based on the monitoring of block 404A, the systemproceeds to block 404B.

At block 404B, the system processes buffered and/or additional visiondata using a gaze machine learning model to monitor for occurrence of adirected gaze.

In some implementations, block 404B includes sub-block 404B1, where thesystem processes a portion of the vision data, using the gaze machinelearning model, based on detecting that the portion corresponds to humanand/or face regions.

At block 406B, the system determines whether a directed gaze has beendetected based on the monitoring of block 40BA. If not, the systemproceeds back to block 402A, receives and buffers additional visiondata, and performs another iteration of block 404A.

If, at an iteration of block 406B, the system determines that a gesturehas been detected based on the monitoring of block 404B, the systemproceeds to block 408 or 410 of FIG. 4A.

Various examples are described herein of activating dormant assistantfunction(s) in response to detecting both a particular gesture and adirected gaze. However, in various implementations dormant assistantfunction(s) can be activated in response to detecting only one of: aparticular gesture, and a directed gaze, optionally in combination withone or more other conditions, such as those described herein. Forexample, in some of those various implementations, dormant assistantfunction(s) can be activated in response to detecting a directed gaze ofa user that is of at least a threshold duration, along with co-occurringother condition(s) such as mouth movement of the user. Also, forexample, in some of those various implementations, dormant assistantfunction(s) can be activated in response to detecting a gesture of auser, along with co-occurring and/or temporally proximal othercondition(s) such as detected voice activity.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example computing device 510 that mayoptionally be utilized to perform one or more aspects of techniquesdescribed herein. In some implementations, one or more of a clientcomputing device, user-controlled resources module 130, and/or othercomponent(s) may comprise one or more components of the examplecomputing device 510.

Computing device 510 typically includes at least one processor 514 whichcommunicates with a number of peripheral devices via bus subsystem 512.These peripheral devices may include a storage subsystem 524, including,for example, a memory subsystem 525 and a file storage subsystem 526,user interface output devices 520, user interface input devices 522, anda network interface subsystem 516. The input and output devices allowuser interaction with computing device 510. Network interface subsystem516 provides an interface to outside networks and is coupled tocorresponding interface devices in other computing devices.

User interface input devices 522 may include a keyboard, pointingdevices such as a mouse, trackball, touchpad, or graphics tablet, ascanner, a touchscreen incorporated into the display, audio inputdevices such as voice recognition systems, microphones, and/or othertypes of input devices. In general, use of the term “input device” isintended to include all possible types of devices and ways to inputinformation into computing device 510 or onto a communication network.

User interface output devices 520 may include a display subsystem, aprinter, a fax machine, or non-visual displays such as audio outputdevices. The display subsystem may include a cathode ray tube (CRT), aflat-panel device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a projectiondevice, or some other mechanism for creating a visible image. Thedisplay subsystem may also provide non-visual display such as via audiooutput devices. In general, use of the term “output device” is intendedto include all possible types of devices and ways to output informationfrom computing device 510 to the user or to another machine or computingdevice.

Storage subsystem 524 stores programming and data constructs thatprovide the functionality of some or all of the modules describedherein. For example, the storage subsystem 524 may include the logic toperform selected aspects of the method of FIGS. 4A and 4B, as well as toimplement various components depicted in FIGS. 1, 2A-2C, and 3 .

These software modules are generally executed by processor 514 alone orin combination with other processors. Memory 525 used in the storagesubsystem 524 can include a number of memories including a main randomaccess memory (RAM) 530 for storage of instructions and data duringprogram execution and a read only memory (ROM) 532 in which fixedinstructions are stored. A file storage subsystem 526 can providepersistent storage for program and data files, and may include a harddisk drive, a floppy disk drive along with associated removable media, aCD-ROM drive, an optical drive, or removable media cartridges. Themodules implementing the functionality of certain implementations may bestored by file storage subsystem 526 in the storage subsystem 524, or inother machines accessible by the processor(s) 514.

Bus subsystem 512 provides a mechanism for letting the variouscomponents and subsystems of computing device 510 communicate with eachother as intended. Although bus subsystem 512 is shown schematically asa single bus, alternative implementations of the bus subsystem may usemultiple busses.

Computing device 510 can be of varying types including a workstation,server, computing cluster, blade server, server farm, or any other dataprocessing system or computing device. Due to the ever-changing natureof computers and networks, the description of computing device 510depicted in FIG. 5 is intended only as a specific example for purposesof illustrating some implementations. Many other configurations ofcomputing device 510 are possible having more or fewer components thanthe computing device depicted in FIG. 5 .

In situations in which the systems described herein collect or otherwisemonitor personal information about users, or may make use of personaland/or monitored information), the users may be provided with anopportunity to control whether programs or features collect userinformation (e.g., information about a user's social network, socialactions or activities, profession, a user's preferences, or a user'scurrent geographic location), or to control whether and/or how toreceive content from the content server that may be more relevant to theuser. Also, certain data may be treated in one or more ways before it isstored or used, so that personal identifiable information is removed.For example, a user's identity may be treated so that no personalidentifiable information can be determined for the user, or a user'sgeographic location may be generalized where geographic locationinformation is obtained (such as to a city, ZIP code, or state level),so that a particular geographic location of a user cannot be determined.Thus, the user may have control over how information is collected aboutthe user and/or used. For example, in some implementations, users mayopt out of assistant devices using vision component 107 and/or usingvision data from vision component 107 in monitoring for occurrence ofgestures and/or directed gazes.

What is claimed is:
 1. A client device comprising: at least one visioncomponent; at least one microphone; one or more processors; memoryoperably coupled with the one or more processors, wherein the memorystores instructions that, in response to execution of the instructionsby one or more of the processors, cause one or more of the processors toperform the following operations: receiving a stream of vision data thatis based on output from the vision component of the client device;receiving a stream of audio data that is based on output from themicrophone of the client device; determining, based on processing thevision data: that a gaze of a user is directed toward the client device,and a user profile for the user; determining, based on processing theaudio data, that a spoken utterance, included in the audio data:temporally corresponds to the gaze, and has voice characteristics thatmatch the user profile that is determined based on processing the visiondata; and in response to determining the gaze of the user, andcontingent on determining that the spoken utterance temporallycorresponds to the gaze and has the voice characteristics that match theuser profile that is determined based on processing the vision data:causing at least one dormant function of the automated assistant to beactivated.
 2. The client device of claim 1, wherein the at least onedormant function of the automated assistant, that is caused to beactivated in response to determining the gaze of the user, andcontingent on determining that the spoken utterance temporallycorresponds to the gaze and has the voice characteristics that match theuser profile that is determined based on processing the vision datacomprises: transmitting of data, from the client device, to a remoteserver associated with the automated assistant.
 3. The client device ofclaim 1, wherein the at least one dormant function of the automatedassistant, that is caused to be activated in response to determining thegaze of the user, and contingent on determining that the spokenutterance temporally corresponds to the gaze and has the voicecharacteristics that match the user profile that is determined based onprocessing the vision data further comprises: graphically renderingcontent that is tailored to the user profile.
 4. The client device ofclaim 1, wherein the at least one dormant function of the automatedassistant, that is caused to be activated in response to determining thegaze of the user, and contingent on determining that the spokenutterance temporally corresponds to the gaze and has the voicecharacteristics that match the user profile that is determined based onprocessing the vision data comprises: automatic speech processing of theaudio data.
 5. The client device of claim 1, wherein determining, basedon processing the vision data, the user profile of the user comprisesperforming facial recognition based on processing the vision data. 6.The client device of claim 1, wherein determining, based on processingthe vision data, that the gaze of the user is directed toward the clientdevice comprises processing the vision data using a trained gaze machinelearning model stored locally at the client device.
 7. The client deviceof claim 1, further comprising: determining that the user profile isauthorized for the client device; wherein causing the at least onedormant function of the automated assistant to be activated is furthercontingent on determining that the user profile is authorized for theclient device.
 8. A method implemented by one or more processors of aclient device that facilitates touch-free interaction between one ormore users and an automated assistant, the method comprising: processingimage frames captured by a camera of the client device; determining,based on processing the image frames: that a gaze of a user is directedtoward the client device, and a user profile for the user; processingaudio data captured by one or more microphones of the client device;determining, based on processing the audio data, that a spokenutterance, included in the audio data: temporally corresponds to thegaze, and has voice characteristics that match the user profile that isdetermined based on processing the image frames; and in response todetermining the gaze of the user, and contingent on determining that thespoken utterance temporally corresponds to the gaze and has the voicecharacteristics that match the user profile that is determined based onprocessing the image frames: causing at least one dormant function ofthe automated assistant to be activated.
 9. The method of claim 8,wherein the at least one dormant function of the automated assistant,that is caused to be activated in response to determining the gaze ofthe user, and contingent on determining that the spoken utterancetemporally corresponds to the gaze and has the voice characteristicsthat match the user profile that is determined based on processing theimage frames comprises: transmitting of data, from the client device, toa remote server associated with the automated assistant.
 10. The methodof claim 9, wherein the at least one dormant function of the automatedassistant, that is caused to be activated in response to determining thegaze of the user, and contingent on determining that the spokenutterance temporally corresponds to the gaze and has the voicecharacteristics that match the user profile that is determined based onprocessing the image frames comprises: automatic speech processing ofthe audio data.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least onedormant function of the automated assistant, that is caused to beactivated in response to determining the gaze of the user, andcontingent on determining that the spoken utterance temporallycorresponds to the gaze and has the voice characteristics that match theuser profile that is determined based on processing the image framesfurther comprises: graphically rendering content that is tailored to theuser profile.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least onedormant function of the automated assistant, that is caused to beactivated in response to determining the gaze of the user, andcontingent on determining that the spoken utterance temporallycorresponds to the gaze and has the voice characteristics that match theuser profile that is determined based on processing the image framescomprises: automatic speech processing of the audio data.
 13. The methodof claim 8, wherein determining, based on processing the image frames,the user profile of the user comprises performing facial recognitionbased on processing at least one of the image frames.
 14. The method ofclaim 13, wherein determining, based on processing the image frames,that the gaze of the user is directed toward the client device comprisesprocessing the image frames using a trained gaze machine learning modelstored locally at the client device.
 15. The method of claim 8, furthercomprising: determining that the user profile is authorized for theclient device; wherein causing the at least one dormant function of theautomated assistant to be activated is further contingent on determiningthat the user profile is authorized for the client device.
 16. A clientdevice, comprising: a vision component; a presence sensor; one or moreprocessors, wherein one or more of the processors are configured to:detect, based on a signal from the presence sensor, that a human ispresent in an environment of the presence sensor; in response todetecting that the human is present in the environment: activate thevision component to provide a stream of vision data that is based onoutput from the vision component; process the vision data using at leastone trained machine learning model stored locally on the client deviceto monitor for occurrence of both: an invocation gesture of a usercaptured by the vision data, and a gaze of the user that is directedtoward the client device; detect, based on the monitoring, occurrence ofboth: the invocation gesture, and the gaze; and in response to detectingthe occurrence of both the invocation gesture and the gaze: cause atleast one dormant function of an automated assistant to be activated.17. The client device of claim 16, wherein the at least one dormantfunction of the automated assistant, that is caused to be activated inresponse to detecting the occurrence of both the invocation gesture andthe gaze comprises: transmitting of data, from the client device, to aremote server associated with the automated assistant.
 18. The clientdevice of claim 16, wherein the at least one dormant function of theautomated assistant, that is caused to be activated in response todetecting the occurrence of both the invocation gesture and the gazecomprises: automatic speech processing of the audio data.